Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/85415
How $12,580 CHASING THE GREEN became $1,800 Owner-operator Steven Abell, leased to Greentree Transportation, hauled a "rock bucket" on his double-drop three-axle step deck primarily for the learning experience, he says in retrospect. The $12,580 it promised to pay to the truck was a good incentive, but he knew it wouldn't be easy. The load, destined for a mining operation in Edson, Alberta, started out in Casper, Wyo., and was 20.5 feet wide and 16 feet tall, Abell says. It moved 1,300 miles through two states and the Canadian province on off-interstate routes. "I had to pay all my fuel, wear and tear, all your pilot cars and escorts — anything that I do comes out of my pocket," Abell says. "All of the permits, I pay for it." He'd ordered his Montana permits in advance at 95,000 pounds GVW, but when he "finally got the thing loaded," he says, "I was 1,600 lbs. light on my Montana permits." After waiting for a week in Casper to get loaded, he then had to sit another five days waiting to get the Montana permit corrected before leaving Wyoming. He spent nine days under the load, averaging 150 miles per day and 4.68 miles per gallon. "Pilot cars really ate me up" in terms of costs, he says. "I had to have three in Montana and Wyoming and two in Canada." At least one of them made $3,100 on the haul, well more than the $1,800 he eventually took home himself. $12,580 gross to the truck - $9,500 pilot cars - $900 fuel - $380 permits, other expenses = $1,800 net to the truck demand means an owner-operator raise as long as you're paid by percent of revenue. He tracks demand by searching the Landstar load board for the number of loads paying more than $2.50 a mile. "From about March to mid-August, mid-July, [in 2011] on any given day there were well over 400-500 [flatbed] loads over $3 a mile. Today, there might be 50. I think the demand is slowing up – this climate changes so fast because of the lack of trucks out here." Reacting quickly to take advantage of those good times, in any niche, is the secret to high income, Philmon says. "That's why I stay out so long sometimes." For video of Steven Abell's haul of a mammoth mining bucket to Alberta, visit youtube.com/ mrstevenabell. JANUARY 2012 OVERDRIVE 51 PRODUCTS & SERVICES Courtesy of Steven Abell Circle 176 on Reader Service Card or visit overdrive.hotims.com